


Before His Time

by CollistaForest



Series: Linked Universe [8]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-06
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2020-02-27 00:51:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18728335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CollistaForest/pseuds/CollistaForest
Summary: Eight Heroes arrive a bit too early, leading them to watch as the Calamity takes one of their own too early





	Before His Time

Eight heroes treaded together into a new land, one which was extensive and wide and open. The only person who could vaguely recognize the land was Twilight, assuring the others that, yes, they were in a new Hyrule none had seen before.

 

The grass smelt oddly different from the cheery apple grass in his Hyrule, or in any Hyrule he had been in before. Everything just smelled off, like a darkness was creeping over the hills, ready to infect all that it could touch.

 

From the hills, the eight could see Hyrule Castle in all of its glory, standing like a far off memory that you could play back in your head whenever you please. From the hills, you could see four great beasts, protecting the land they’ve sworn their creation to. From the hills, you could see the most powerful teen in all of Hyrule, cooped up in a stuffy castle with nothing more than the princess to keep him company.

 

“Well, new Hyrule, new Hero.” Time began, stepping through the wild grass to lean over the edge of the hillside. He took a deep breath, senses overfilling with new Hylian scents. “Sky, does the sword have any knowledge of the Hero in this Hyrule?”

 

Over his shoulder, Time looked to Sky, who already looked deep in thought. Time waited a moment for Sky to open his eyes, hands shaking as he touched the hilt of the legendary Master Sword.

 

“She doesn’t know much, only that he is dubbed the Hylian Champion here. We would need to get a bit closer for anything more concrete, though.” Sky let go.

 

“Alright, then let’s go!” Warriors picked up his travel bag from the ground, ready to start moving  _ now. _

 

“Hold up, Captain.” Holding onto one of Warriors shoulders, Twilight held him still. “We’ll never make it to the castle before night. We need to set up camp, first and foremost.”

 

“Wait,” Wind perched himself next to Time, looking for the familiar smell of the lakes. “There! There is a small lake about two miles away between us and the Castle. We could make camp there and reach the castle earlier in the morning!’

 

“Good idea.” Ruffling Wind’s head, Time let a small smile show. “We’ll make camp by the lake and reach the castle in the morning.” Then, he slid on the side of the hill, slowing as he reached where the hill flattened out into the smooth land. Time could hear the others following behind, Twilight picking up speed to tread next to him.

 

Even while looking forward, Time could see the half formed questions on the pup's face. Some prompting might do him good.

 

“What's on your mind, pup?” 

 

“Its…” Twilight exhaled, running fingers through his messy hair as be tried to form a comprehensible sentence. “Can't you feel it? The darkness lurking around the corners of the world? It feels like… like it's trying to suffocate the light around here, like its trying to drown everything in death… Does that make any sense?”

 

“Hardly.”

 

Exasperated, Twilight let his head and shoulders hang. Time took some pity and ruffled the messy mop of hair on Twilight’s head. Small talk was made as they reached the lake, some of the heroes picking fruits off of trees and mushrooms off the ground. A cooking pot was placed in the center of camp, right over a burning fire.

 

Sky was tasked with cooking while Hyrule stayed far away from the cooking pot. He was the most talented cook in the group, but that wasn't saying much because none of them were remotely good cooks.

 

The end result was a bland stew, but at least it didn't look dubious. The bland, tasteless stew was passed around, everyone filling up a bowl. At least the salt helped it taste less terrible.

 

At the end of the day, food was food, they normally ate whatever they came across, so the stew was still an improvement from just eating hylian mushrooms off the side of a dirt path.

 

Washed out and cleansed, the bowls and silverware were put in the inventories and adventure pouches of their owners. Bed rolls were flung out, giving the heroes a place to sit as they shared more stories over the fire. They talked of helpers, friends, family, enemies, torturers, Ganon.

 

Sky had a blank, confused face most of  _ that  _ conversation, but no one either noticed nor cared enough to point it out.

 

Then, as the moon hung in the sky, the heroes decided to turn in for the night, leaving the first shift up to Hyrule.

 

Except, there was nothing for Hyrule to do. No enemies came to fight and destroy, no villager came to claim chaos on their home, no hopeless traveler searching to sell their stock. Nothing, only the birds and frogs chirping away happily. Croaking like they've never been in a distressing situation in the entirety of their existence. Which, with how peaceful this Hyrule had been, it's possible no creature has had harm befall them before.

 

Hyrule switched shifts on the third hour of nothing.

 

His relief had no luck in finding enemies to kill either.

 

Once the sun rose above the treeline, bringing in beautiful bright yellows and reds and blues into the sky, the heroes awoke. The morning birds sang as they walked along a rocky dirt path to the castle. The most interesting part of the trip was crossing the river, but that was only until Four found a bridge several meters away. After that, it was boring and tiresome all the way up to Hyrule Castle.

 

That was until two Hylians on horses came down the other end, surrounded by four others, all from four different races.

 

Instead of greeting them like normal Hylians, the eight heroes decided to hide behind a slightly large mound of rocks, which was a bit too small to fit all of them behind.

 

The six eventually got closer, allowing the eight hiding heroes to get a good look at the two Hylians on horses. Both were blonde, but not the same shade. The young lady had light blonde hair, almost yellow, while the young man's hair was a more wheat color.

 

Then, they saw the sword on the young man's back, and Wind and to shut himself up before he screamed  _ “There he is!! There he is!!” _

 

They all watched the current hero, paying no mind to his other five, very important, group members. Legend decided the hero was too stoic, making the pranks he will pull on the hero later all the more with it. 

 

Warriors, however, took a moment to get a good look at the hero's posture. They way he sat, the way he surveyed the area, his silence, his hesitance, his deeply hidden need for praise, commendation, approval.

 

The Captain ducked his head back under the rock and quickly mentioned to his fellow heroes.

 

“He's a soldier,”

 

For some reason, they looked back at the Captain in surprise before taking another good look at the current hero.

 

“Okay, yeah,” Twilight does another double check. “Sounds about right.”

 

“Well, what are we waiting for then?” Four picks himself off of the dirt, brushing it off of his nice tunic. “Let's go snag him.”

 

Before anyone could move another muscle, Sky came back from a conversation only he could have.

 

“Wait.”

 

His fellow Heroes seemed to stare at him in confusion for more than a few moments as he collected himself from talking with a spirit inside a sword.

 

“We can't interfere.”

 

Protests came at once,  _ “What do you mean we can't interfere”  _ or  _ “But he's the hero we're looking for!”  _

 

Time silenced the heroes with just a look. Peering over the edge of the rock, Time deemed the six travelers too far away to hear anything they said. So, he nodded for Sky to continue, curious himself.

 

“Fi was able to commune with the sword in this time. There is something disastrous that will take place for the Hero here soon, and since his future is already set in stone, we aren't allowed to try and change it. We have to stay in the sidelines this time, though we'll come back later to the time period we need to be in.” 

 

“That isn't confusing  _ at all _ .” Legend said with his usual snark meter going through the roof. Warriors deemed it fulfilling enough to smack the shorter in the head.

 

The sword was right, though. It always was. 

 

After four hours of doing nothing but thinking, the ground shook.

 

Hyrule Castle was engulfed by black smoke and bright pink-purple goop. Monsters roared, machine's codes were overwritten, causing them to destroy those who have fixed them and decided to work side-by-side with them.

 

Calamity Ganon roared over the peaks of the castle, corrupting and killing all it touched. Beasts were infected, monsters became gruesome and ugly, and Hylians died. Foundations shook, shivered, shakes and collapsed. Houses became undone by the hundreds, killing those inside and out.

 

From their left, as the rain started coming down in droplets, they saw the current Hero, running with his Zelda, directly toward the castle. She tumbled, fell, and collapsed in his arms. His fingers ran through her hair for a moment, just a moment, before he used the rest of his upper body to shield her from the oncoming storm.

 

It took all Twilight had in him to not rush over and lay a protective hand over the two.

 

Zelda and Link both stood slowly, rain coming down in sheets now. Deciding together, they continued running straight for the core of Hyrule.

 

It was a unanimous decision between the eight Heroes to follow along, killing any Bokoblin that tried to come along.

 

The field was covered with electronic Guardians. Sky pulled Four back before he could be hit by a stray laser.

 

The Heroes fell back, hiding behind what they hoped to be a carcass of a Guardian. They watched and studied how the current Hero grew tired as he swung the legendary sword against the Guardians. The Hero kept fighting, blast after blast, burn after burn, just to keep his Zelda safe. 

 

His screams could barely be heard over the scuttling sound of Guardians.

 

Link stood tall at the end, Master Sword in hand as he protected Zelda at the brink of his life. He couldn't feel his limbs, he could barely see, he could hear the ringing of his left ear, almost positive it was blown off.

 

His face burned, everything burned, but he continued to fight.

 

That is, until Zelda unleashed her fury on the oncoming storm of Guardians.

 

Link could feel himself smile as the while energy radiated itself off of the princess, forming around her like a protective spell. As she turned, a smile on her face, Link could feel himself drop to the floor, his own burned legs not able to support him anymore.

 

The other heroes begged for a savior, for a hero for the hero.

 

The current Hero was dead and gone by the time two Sheikah warriors came to the rescue.

 

The eight watched the limp, burned, and broken body of the Hero be taken away from the field, towards a raised plateau. They turned back to the Princess once he was out of sight, only to see her stumbling, covered in mud, and heading straight for the castle.

 

They remembered, they weren't allowed to interfere.

 

Before someone tried to run and help someone,  _ anyone,  _ they disappeared to another Hyrule.

 

They didn't really need to be in this Hyrule until a hundred years from now anyways.


End file.
